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Nuclear History Publications

Nuclear latency can be viewed as the possession of many or all of the technologies, facilities, materials, expertise (including tacit knowledge), resources and other capabilities necessary for the development of nuclear weapons, without full operational weaponization. This workshop report explores the relationship between nuclear latency and contemporary nonproliferation efforts, including historical case studies. more

Sergey Radchenko draws on Soviet and Russian documents from 1991-1993 to argue that the first North Korean crisis began partly as a result of the policy choices of key regional players. Radchenko investigates Russia’s policy towards North Korea during this period, and how this policy may have inadvertently complicated the situation on the Korean Peninsula. more

Between 1981 and 1989 the foreign intelligence branches of the Soviet KGB and the East German Ministry of State Security launched a combined effort to develop a system for detecting signs of an impending western nuclear first strike. Codenamed “Project RYaN”, this early-warning system constituted one part of the Soviet response to the perceived threat of a surprise “decapitation” strike by NATO nuclear forces. more

Mariana Budjeryn investigates the security assurances made by the United States and Russia to Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union. These assurances, inscribed in the so-called “Budapest Memorandum” were designed to encourage Ukraine to ratify START I—otherwise known as the Lisbon Protocol—and return their entire nuclear arsenal to Russia for dismantling. more

The Euromissile Crisis and the End of the Cold War explores the origins, unfolding, and consequences of the crisis surrounding the proposed deployment of new generations of nuclear missile delivery systems across Eastern and Western Europe in the later years of the Cold War. more

This research update co-published with the National Security Archive includes the publication of recently declassified satellite photographs of the South African Nuclear Test site from 1977, a new release of a CIA report on the September 1979 South Atlantic Mystery Flash, and Department of Energy and Defense Intelligence Agency Reports illuminating pre-war controversy over the Iraqi procurement of aluminum tubes for an alleged gas centrifuge program more

NPIHP Working Paper #3. Jayita Sarkar explores technological collaboration between the French and Indian Atomic Energy Commissions, using new archival documents to expose how shared opposition to U.S. information censorship and the desire to preserve foreign policy independence fostered nuclear collaboration between the two nations. more